Donald Trump.Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images
Another day, another detail about the ongoing saga of howDonald Trumpmaintained his White House records.
AccordingtoTheWashington Post, some of the the records the National Archives retrieved from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida were clearly labeled classified and included some documents designated “top secret” — even as Trump insists everything was handled appropriately.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) confirmed this week that in January,15 boxes that contained presidential recordswere removed from the Florida property where the former president resides.
Sources told thePostsome of those documents contained information that is extremely sensitive and that only a small group of U.S. officials would have the authority to view those records.
It was previously reported that the boxes contained a letter from former PresidentBarack Obamaas well as other correspondence with world leaders, including what Trump had called"love letters"from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, reams of printed news clips and a map that Trump infamously marked-up with a black Sharpie to show how Hurricane Dorian could hit Alabama in 2019.
After the archives requested an investigation into the Trump administration’s handling of White House documents, the Justice Department is now weighing how to proceed, if at all, while records are held in a sensitive compartmented information facility, according to thePost. (A spokeswoman with the DOJ declined to comment to PEOPLE.)
“These records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021,” the agency said in a statement this week, referring to the 15 boxes of documents.
Donald Trump.Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images
Trump denied any wrongdoing in a statement released Thursday.
Trump said that “following collaborative and respectful discussions,” the NARA “openly and willingly arranged with President Trump for the transport of boxes that contained letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and various articles.”
Some of those taped-up documents were reportedly among the more than 700 pages turned over to lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Those congressional investigators have found few records of calls that Trump made that day, though they know from other witnesses that he was on the phone talking to aides and allies.
The investigators reportedly have not found evidence of tampering or deleting call logs. The report noted that Trump also had a habit if using a personal phone to make calls.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
The committee has reportedly requested telecommunication companiespreserve phone recordsfrom some Trump contacts as they piece together the events leading up to and during the Jan. 6 attack.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Demcrat who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said Monday she plans to “fully investigate” possible violations of the Presidential Records Act and other rules on handling White House records.
“I sounded the alarm in December 2020 about the danger that the former President and senior Trump Administration officials were not properly transferring presidential records to the National Archives and unfortunately, we now know that was the case,” shesaid in a statement. “I plan to fully investigate this incident to ensure the law is followed and records from the Trump Administration are with the National Archives where they belong, rather than stashed away in Trump’s golf resorts.”
source: people.com
